NRL Round 1

The new Nurburgring Racing League kicked off on 25th January and although BAM had already had a hard weekend -  both the iRacing Daytona 24 and round 4 of GoT was the same weekend, we managed to field all 6 cars.

Christian was mighty in the #267

Despite being undecided about driving (to the point his team mate withdrew from the race), star of the show was Christian Challiner, running solo and comfortably winning the C Spec class, even after suffering a disconnection with an hour to go. The Nurburgring tow truck drivers are pretty efficient! Christian ended up 2nd overall.







The 2nd C Spec was also fast and should have made it a 1-2 for the team in that class but a small mistake on the Green Hell can be costly and although Sven slightly shaded Christian for the fastest C Spec lap of the race, the car ended up 5th in class. Joel Hafner and Mattias Magnusson also drove the #266.

Robin did well just to bring #166 home

The biggest disappointment of the race was the #166 BMW. Stephan Spantig put the car on pole and was comfortably pulling away but got bitten by the curbs and damaged the car. A long pitstop didn't fix all the damage so Stephan's team mate Robin could do on more than get the car home. Attrition and a poor turn-out, especially in the GT3 class, meant the car was classified 4th in the GT3's.

Matei was very impressive in  the BMW

Our 2nd BMW was entered under Jason's "Drunkards Motorsports" team after we (and the organisers) were concerned that there were too many BAM cars entered in the series. Jason had an amusing (although not so much at the time) spin where he got stuck on the curb after a spin and had to tow back to the pits. But after that incident, the car ran really well with Ernie doing his normal solid job and team "new boy" Matei Gheorghui making a fantastic debut, running 15 fast laps without having an incident.

Gustavo made a very brave overtake

The Jettas were a hard luck story. #367 was massively hampered by Nenad getting caught by the "autofill" registration bug and not being able to drive. Nenad stayed around to help the team and guide everyone so massive thanks to him!. Without Nenad, Bryan and Gustavo did a great job to bring the car home 2nd, with Gustavo making a great pass to take over 2nd place.

Sai wanted to make sure the full details of Nenad's great paints could be seen!

#366 had a nightmare race. Marco got caught out by the Jetta pole sitter jumping the start and later crashed whilst trying to make up the time he'd lost. Sai took over and was going well until  he touched a curb heavily and rolled the car. John took over after a long pit stop and drove steadily until the last lap when he got distracted by a GT3 and also crashed the car!. 7th in class was about as much as we deserved!

iRacing Daytona 24

BAM put out 4 cars in this, one Daytona Prototype and 3 BMWs. Careful registration saw the DP and the 2 lead BMWs all in the same (4th) split with the much loved "Betsy" development car running in a lower split.

Banana!!!!!!!!

The Daytona Prototype was running a special paint scheme after Christian's predicted that the car would be banana shaped well before the end of the race. Fortunately, he's better at driving than predicting so the car ran really well and although overall we didn't have enough pace to challenge the 1st 2 cars, 4th place was a great result. Christian was joined by regular DP partner Tommy plus Daniel Johnson, Sam Harris and Brandon Gaurascia.

Troy takes #366 around T1

The 366 car had 2 new drivers (for BAM) and was pretty short staffed after some real life issues for a couple of the drivers scheduled to run. It meant a heavy workload for the 4 drivers in the car but aside from a couple of minor issues, the car ran like clockwork and was easily the best place BMW at the end, finishing 4th in the GT3s. New boys Troy McGuire and Travis Kerslake both made impressive debuts, with established #366 drivers John King and Matt Newton also going well.

#367 always seems to be the car that has problems in 24 hour races and it proved to be the case again. A couple of incidents saw the car lose 1 1/2 hours in the pits and although the boys did a great recovery job to get the car home in 8th place in GT3, the position didn't reflect the speed of the car and the effort put in by the drivers. Robin Rosenvinge did an amazing job - 252 laps, 2 incidents. Braith Morrow, Lewis Cugaly, John Barry (in another impressive debut) and Stephan Spantig shared the rest of the driving.



Meanwhile, Betsy also ran well in the 10th Split. At one stage, she was running 3rd but a couple of incidents dropped her down the order to an eventually 6th place. All the drivers did a great job but there were 2 stand-out performances - Bryan de Bryun (in a rare GT3 appearance) did 124 laps at the kind of pace 366/367 were running and didn't have a single incident! Alex Sheridan, our 4th débutante in the race,  also drove great spells. The cars other drivers were Jason Roy (doing his normal great job at leading and organising the car), Mark Dyall, Oliver Searles and Ernie Ludwig (who pace has improved massively since last years race!).

Race 4 Okayama Short (25 minutes):

 Wow what a great race. The Mustang SOF was 3189 and the racing was hot throughout all 3 classes both on and off the track. The track was 51C and very slippery.

Results: See 2nd post and here: http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/Event...ssionid=15480524&custid=158878

AWARDS:

CLASS AWARDS:

Mark Webber: Losing most positions from your starting position

Paul Rogers (Mustang)
N/A (Jetta)
David Beattie (Solstice)

Takuma Sato: Gaining most positions from starting position

Oliver Searles and Craig Trethewey (Mustang)
N/A (Jetta)
Thomas Strunk (Solstice)

Daniel Riccardo: Most positions finished ahead of number in class

Craig Trethewey (Mustang)
Nicholas Garforth (Jetta)
Jorge Bernal (Solstice)

OVERALL AWARDS:

Pastor Maldonado: Highest incidents per corner
David Beattie (17 incidents in 5 laps)

Scott Dixon: Lowest incidents per corner
Russell Clark, Jay Duthie, Brad Haigh, Israel Garzón, Matthew Bailey3, Seiichi Kawada, Christopher Midtsveen Vigre (0 incidents in 25 laps)

Will Power: Scoring negative points

Neil Heatlie, P Heeg, Paul H Rogers, David Beattie

GTC APAC Challenge Race 3 Monza GP (40 mins)

Asia Pacific Challenge:

http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/3346486.page

Race 3 Monza GP (40 minutes):

The first 40 minute race of the season, saw 22 people show for some close but fair racing at Monza. BAM had 3 people in the Mustang battle with Paul finishing the best of us in 3rd, Oliver 4th and Gary 5th. Bryan put in a great effort in the Jetta to finish 2nd.

Results: http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/EventResult.do?&subsessionid=15394704&custid=158878

AWARDS:

CLASS AWARDS:

Mark Webber: Losing most positions from your starting position

Benn Callow (Mustang)
Russell Clark (Jetta)
Manel Segret (Solstice)

Takuma Sato: Gaining most positions from starting position

Keith Wheeler (Mustang)
Phillip Duckworth (Jetta)
Seiichi Kawada (Solstice)

Daniel Riccardo: Most positions finished ahead of number in class

Gary Fishwick (Mustang)
Phillip Duckworth (Jetta)
Craig M Hopkins (Solstice)

OVERALL AWARDS:

Pastor Maldonado: Highest incidents per corner
Benn Callow (7 incidents in 12 laps)

Scott Dixon: Lowest incidents per corner
Jake Moloney, Paul Rogers, Jay Duthie, Craig Hopkins, Brad Fenly, Seiichi Kawada, Thomas Strunk (0 incidents in 19 laps)

Will Power: Scoring negative points

Brad Haigh

GTC APAC Challenge Race 2 Watkins Classic

[size=18][b]Race 2 Watkins Glen Classic:[/b] [/size]

Great race with some close battles throughout all classes.

Results: See 2nd post and here: http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/EventResult.do?&subsessionid=15323552&custid=158878

[b]AWARDS:[/b]

CLASS AWARDS:

[b]Mark Webber: [/b] Losing most positions from your starting position

Anssi Vuori (Mustang)
N/A (Jetta)
Manuel Gomez Martinez2, Shaun King(Solstice)

[b]Takuma Sato:[/b] Gaining most positions from starting position

Keith Wheeler(Mustang)
N/A (Jetta)
Seiichi Kawada, Johannes Knaub (Solstice)

[b]Daniel Riccardo:[/b] Most positions finished ahead of number in class

Anssi Vuori (Mustang)
N/A (Jetta)
Sergio Peña (Solstice)

OVERALL AWARDS:

[b]Pastor Maldonado: [/b]Highest incidents per corner
Jonathan Beikoff (8 incidents in 6 laps)

[b]Scott Dixon:[/b] Lowest incidents per corner

Benn Callow, Keith Wheeler and Jack W Miller (0 incidents in 19 laps)

[b]Will Power:[/b] Scoring negative points

Manuel Gomez Martinez2, Shaun King and Jonathan Beikoff

2015 Season Review - Australian Endurance Championship

AEC is a multi-class team racing championship. During 2015, 8 rounds were schedule although 1 was cancelled due to scheduling issues.

Black Adder initially entered 3 cars in the GT3 class for the series and for the final 2 rounds a Daytona Prototype was added.

The series started at Daytona with an 8 hour night race. Due to drive unavailability, we reduced the entry to 2 cars. #67 was driven by Braith Morrow, Lewis Cugaly and John King. Lewis wasn't available for the 1st 3 hours of the race so the inital plan was for Braith to start but when we came to grid, we realised that because John had set a slightly fastest time in qualifying, he had to start the race. After 20 laps there was a caution period and John was one of the few GT3's to stop for fuel & tyres. When the race went green, John quickly moved back into the leading pack of GT3's and when another caution came out on lap 33, he was the only GT3 to stay out and because the lead protype stopped, John got a wave around the pace car and took the lead of the GT3 class. From that point, it was a case of running consistently and ensuring we covered all the other cars tactically. This worked perfectly and #66 came home comfortable winners of GT3 (and 6th overall!). #66 was driven by Jake Fox, Paul Rogers and Oliver Searles. They had some mishaps and finished 18th.

Round 2 was Bathurst and it turned into a disaster for the whole team. Things initially looked good, with John, in #67 again with Braith and Lewis and Christian Challiner, driving #66 with Jake, Oliver and Tommy Vandergucht running 1-3 in the GT3 class during the 2nd hour. But, a myriad of delays, crashes and damage for both cars dropped them way down the field. #66 eventually finished 18th and Braith somehow managed to drag a very beaten up #66 around for the last 2 hours, finishing 27th.

For Round 3 at Watkins Glen, 3 cars were entered and with strong pairings in both 366 and 367 (the number now reflected the class the car ran in), the team were confident of a good showing. Initially Braith in 367 and Tommy in 366 ran well and were in the led pack of GT3s. There was a caution on lap 27 and both cars pitted and did driver swaps. At the restart they was a huge crash and both cars were badly damaged. In the panic, the 367 car was pitted without having the new optional reset flag set and so had to wait 35 mins while the damage was repaired "normally".  #366 finished 28th and #367 33rd. Meanwhile, proving that the tortoise beats the hare sometimes, the 368 car, driven by Oliver and Joseph Cardamone, drove consistently to finish an excellent 25th.

After 2 poor rounds, the team needed to bounce back at Mosport and Lewis and Braith did just that, taking a great win in #367, beating Shane van Gisbergen and Justin Ruggier in the process. #366 was driven by Jake and Paul and although they had a few problems, they finished a good 7th in class. Oliver and Joseph again did well in #368, finishing 9th.

The next round was the big one - the 24 hours of Spa. The full report of the race is on another post but it was another victory for the team - with #366 winning this time.

Round 7 (the 6th race) was Monza and with the speed difference between the Rufs and BMWs, all we could hope for was a clean, consistent run from the cars and we got exactly that with Braith, Stephan Spantig and Robin Rosenvinge taking 3rd place  in #367. The toher cars also ran well, #366 finishing 8th and #368 10th.

The final round was VIR. Again the Rufs had a bit of an advantage (although not as large as Monza) but the BAM cars ran well with #367 and #366 running in formation for the last few laps of the season to finish 5th & 6th and clinch 2nd spot in the championship for #367. Another solid performance by #368 saw Oliver, Mark Dyall and Sam Harris take 9th place.


Final Championship Standing



Full Race Results

Round 1 - Daytona: http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/EventResult.do?&subsessionid=12806181&custid=50412
Round 2 - Bathurst: http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/EventResult.do?&subsessionid=13046423&custid=50412
Round 3 - Watkins Glen: http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/EventResult.do?&subsessionid=13794059&custid=50412
Round 4 - Mosport: http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/EventResult.do?&subsessionid=14187322&custid=50412
Round 5 - Phillip Island: Cancelled
Round 6: Spa 24 Hours: http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/EventResult.do?&subsessionid=14682868&custid=50412
Round 7 - Monza: http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/EventResult.do?&subsessionid=15148394&custid=50412
Round 8 - VIR: http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/EventResult.do?&subsessionid=15248456&custid=50412

2015 Season Review - CESCS

The CESCS series is a long establish league on iRacing that mirrors, as closely as possible, the real life series. We entered 2 cars, one focussed on Marco Abbate in a bid to win the drivers championship and a back-up car to help with setups and strategy. Marco was initially partnered by Lewis Cugaly but with Lewis starting to have connection and hardware issues, John King stepped in for a couple of rounds until Christian Challiner took over permanently, with John moving to the 2nd car.

We started the season well, with a great 2nd place at Daytona by Marco/Lewis, a brilliant 3rd at Sebring with Marco driving solo and another 2nd at Laguna with Lewis back in the car with Marco. Laguna provided the lowlight of the season with Marco (very unfairly) penalised for unavoidable contact with an MX-5. The penalty was 10 championship points in the drivers championship and although it turned out to be insignificant, it did make the last 2 rounds more tense than they could have been.

Round 4 was at Watkins and with Lewis again having problems, John stepped into the #66 with Marco. Their race was "interesting" - John was spun at T1, Lap 1 by 49 Motorsports but recovered to hand over to Marco in 5th. Marco then had a slightly slow stop during a caution period and lost positions but then drove a storming race to get the car back to 5th.

The halfway point of the series was Mosport with John again partnering Marco and Christian in #67 with Stephan. Stephan and John started and both drove well to hand over to the faster drivers in good positions. At one stage it looked like the cars could finish 1-2 but Marco was penalised for speeding in the pits (but recovered to finish 4th) and we made a strategy call to not change tyres on #67. It probably wasn't the right move but Christian drove fantastically to keep the car 2nd.

For round 6 at Lime Rock, Lewis was back but with his connection problems still lurking, Christian drove with Marco in #66 and Lewis partnered Stephan in #67. The strategy looked perfect as Christian took pole and lead for most of the 1st stint. Marco was running well but spun and damaged the car at Lime Rocks imfamous hill. #67 also run fast (Lewis setting the fastest lap of the race) but also got damaged. 8th for #67 and 11th for #66 wasn't a reflection of our pace and was easily the worst result for the team during the season.

Round 7 at Road America was spoilt by an unnecessary caution thrown by the stewards. #66, again driven by Marco and Christian, were in a very strong strategic position but their fuel advantage was given up at the caution. Their 6th place again didn't reflect their pace. Stephan and John finished a solid 7th.

The team bounced back very strongly at VIR with Marco and Christian taking a great win. #67, driven by Lewis and John (Stephan wasn't available) finished 3rd and only a weird connection problem for John that caused him to blink and drive slowly to ensure he didn't crash prevented them from making it a 1-2.

COTA was another strong performance by Christian and Marco but Christian had a disconnect during his stint and they lost a lot of time while the car towed and Marco jumped back in. 4th place was a great recovery. In #67, John drove with the Mr Clean standings in mind so gave Stephan a difficult job to make up ground but he did manage to drag the car up to 6th.

Christian sweeps by Todd Honczarenko as Todd pits for fuel
as the white flag comes out

The final race at Road Atlanta was tense for the team. Marco led the drivers championship but only by a small margin and we were a few points behind Torque Chicken and their guest stars in the team standings. The race turned out to be a strategic rerun of Road America but this time a caution didn't save the other teams and with other cars slowing to save fuel or having to make a last minute splash & Dash, Christian retook the lead he'd given up to save fuel earlier in the stint with 2 laps to go and took another great win for #66 and revenge for the Road America result.

The results were enough to seal the drivers (and rookie) championship for Marco. We narrowly failed to overtook Torque Chicken in the team standings. John, Marco and Christian made it a clean sweep for BAM in the Mr Clean standings.